


Children of Prophecy

by SolarQueen



Series: Digital Unify [1]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure
Genre: But Things are more ‘Realistic’ I Guess, Friendship, Gen, Like I said this has a ‘Realistic’ vibe to it, Not Totally Angst, Protective Friends (Eventually), So fights and injuries are going to be a little more... described, Technically there’s kind of graphic depictions of violence, because I want to, but not like crazy you know, just some moments of blushy kids, no romance yet, oc fic, slow burn friendships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2019-11-29 00:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18215642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolarQueen/pseuds/SolarQueen
Summary: There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that nobody knows about. A group of kids just looking to have fun at summer camp manage to get dragged to a world looking for help, their help specifically.Friends, acquaintances and practical strangers now have to work together to find a way home, saving this world in the process might just be a plus one on their todo list. Will they be able to put their differences aside?





	1. Human World: Start of it All

**Author's Note:**

> The title is kind of a WIP I may change it later, I may not, but rn that’s what it is idek

Waking up on that early August 1st morning for that oh-so important summer camp was either the greatest or the worst decision of Sakura Motoyoa’s life.

* * *

 Her room is as messy as she left it last night, clothes thrown across the room and barely any of them rolled up in her duffel bag for camp. If she was a morning person she’d probably shoot up straight away, gathering anything she can and running down to the cafe for a quick hour shift to help her father. But she’s not.

Her dad never expects her to help out (especially in the morning) and it isn’t like he pays her for working - unless you count extra allowance which technically comes from the family business funds anyway - so she’s happily able to shove her head back under her pillow after she snoozes her alarm.

She can hear the morning rush happening downstairs, regulars getting their coffee and new customers finding their little place. She can almost imagine the dishwasher rattling away as her dad calmly rushes through the kitchen to grab pastries and extra coffee mix to display in their rightful places.

When the noises get a little too much for her to be able to go back to sleep, she scrunches up her nose, lets out a groan and finally pushes herself to sit up. Dark blue-green hair greets her lime eyes as she turns to look at her clock; she still has an hour before she needs to leave, she has time.

She almost falls out of her single bed, paint-stained grey sheets tangling around her legs and making her stumble into her chest of drawers barely thirty centimetres from her bedside table. She huffs, blowing some of her hair from her face, and frees her ankles from her duvet before scruffily making her bed and fluffing up her pillow (might as well come back to a clean room). She flicks off her bedside lamp, and looks around her room.  

Her desk is on the opposite side of the space, decorated in paint splotches much like her bed and set up to look out of her window at the market street below. Atop it sits almost three plastic organisers, one filled with paint brushes, one multiple grey and coloured pencils, and the last dozens of multicoloured pens and markers. On the right of the desk is a slim bookshelf, only fitting about thirteen, four-hundred page books on every shelf though the top one is filled with multiple sketchbooks. On the left is a full-body mirror resting against the wall, a small stack of plastic drawers next to it containing her hairbrush and multiple different ties for her hair.

She goes over to the mirror, plopping to sit cross-legged on the floor and pulling the hairbrush from the top drawer. She yanks through the tangles in her hair - which reaches to about her mid back - with minor grunts, running her fingers through it when she’s done; she puts a scrunchie on her wrist and stands. She takes a moment to assess her room again, wardrobe doors wide open from next to her closed main door; most things that could’ve been inside are on the floor like half of the items in the drawers on the other side of her door (the ones next to her bedside table).

She decides to finish packing _after_ breakfast, preferring to have a bit more energy before she speeds through cleaning her room and fully getting ready. However, she can’t exactly go down into the cafe in the shorts and tank top she wears as pyjamas right now, can she? No. So her eyes scan the floor for a few seconds before she scoops up a few articles of clothing and sticks her desk chair in front of her door just in case her dad comes up to wake her.

She changes quickly, pulling on a long-sleeved black turtleneck and a red suspender skirt (underneath of which are a pair of cycling shorts - because she’s going to be with lots of other kids and it's inevitable that she will fall over at some point). She tucks her hair behind her ears and slips into white ankle socks and red tennis shoes before throwing open her door and entering the living room.

She’s lived in this little apartment her whole life, her dad having established his business a few years before she was born. Apparently there used to be a kitchen as part of the open plan living room so it used to be a one bedroom apartment. But, because there’s a full kitchen downstairs, her dad got the kitchen removed and replaced with a bedroom, new walls and everything (this was only implemented when she was old enough to have her own room - and while it made the living room smaller than it could’ve been, she loves her home nonetheless). At the complete opposite end of the apartment and adjacent to the door to her dad’s bedroom is the door to the bathroom and through another door on the right side of the space is the spiral staircase that takes her down to the cafe.

She goes downstairs, bending under the red rope that stops customers from going up and greeting the regular elderly couple that sit at their usual table. She ties her hair in a quick ponytail, wispy strands of hair framing her face, before she flips up the countertop gate and goes behind the counter.

The two businessmen who regularly sit on the stools at the counter greet her then too, raising their coffee mugs as she waves at them. She goes over to the window that opens out into the kitchen, throwing her forearms onto the sill and lifting half of her torso atop it too.

“Morning dad!” She greets brightly, smiling at the middle-aged, indigo haired man.

“Hi sweetheart,” he responds, pulling a steaming tray of chocolate, banana muffins from one of the ovens, “I’ve sorted out a little bag for you and your friends for the trip but for now eat your breakfast and finish packing.” He places the tray on a cooling rack in order to pass a plate of pancakes through along with a mug of fruit tea.

“Thank you!” Grinning, Sakura takes the items and places them on the main counter, hopping up onto the stool just by the kitchen door.

She eats as moderately quickly as she normally does, most customers not sparing her many glances though a few do seem a little confused (which generally happens with the newer/one time folks). She takes her time with her tea, letting it cool and conversing softly with the business men before she finishes, passes the dishes back through to her father - who moves away from crafting perfect macaroons to take them and place them with a few other dirty dishes.

She crouches under the rope again and prances back up to stairs. She walks across the sofa (for some reason) to get back to her room, she pushes open the door and grabs her duffel bag from the floor to throw onto her bed. She stands on her bed to look over the clothes on the floor, picking out the ones she wishes to pack and diving for them after a moment. She rolls most of her clothes, they fit in her bag better that way, and puts a pair of walking boots in at the top; her already organised toiletries stuff thrown in after she brushes her teeth and whatnot. With her main bag packed, she throws the remaining clothes back into their rightful places and fills up a teal backpack-satchel with an empty sketchbook and a pencil case full of an assortment of pens and pencils - no paint when travelling.

She tightens her ponytail and brushes off her skirt before surveying her finally clean room and packed bags sat on her bed. She flops onto the mattress, staring at the ceiling and stretching before looking back at the clock. She isn’t quite sure what traffic will be like getting to school so it’s probably best if she starts walking now instead of getting her dad to drive her down.

* * *

 Getting down isn’t too much of a hassle, before she left her dad did make a little debacle of a goodbye that she still has a slight pink dusting over her cheeks from. The regulars who were still at the shop waved her goodbye as well (saying they’d miss her while she’s away) and she took the stuffed bag of treats before leaving.

Her satchel is on her back and her duffel crossed over her shoulder to rest against her thigh. She cuts through the park and spots her close friends Tai and Sora kicking a soccer ball between each other; her best friend Joe sits on his suitcase with Jade sitting cross-legged at his feet, both within the trio’s pile of bags a few feet away from them.

Jade is Joe’s younger sister and the youngest child of the Kido family being in the 2nd grade - the same grade as Tai’s younger sister who Sakura finds nowhere in sight. Jade’s puff of short, indigo hair looks as fluffy as ever and her dark eyes (only slightly obscured by large, red rimmed glasses) are intently focused on the little origami rose she’s folding together. She’s wearing a simple, black and white striped, long-sleeved T-shirt tucked into black skinny jeans with her feet hidden by basic, black trainers with Velcro straps instead of laces.

“Hey guys!” She calls, waving brightly and skipping over to drop her duffel within the bag pile and scoot to sit next to Joe, “where’s Kari?”

Tai stops the ball with his foot when he and Sora greet her, “Kari got one of those summer colds,” he explains.

Jade pipes up from the floor, folding her arms and pouting, “I didn’t know until I got here and now I’m stuck going to this stupid camp without my best friend.”

Joe makes a quiet whining noise that only she can hear, checking his watch before replying to the moody girl, “well part of the point of you coming is so you can make new friends, you can’t spend all your life _only_ hanging out with Kari.”

Tai chuckles a little, coming over to the younger Kido and squatting to her height, “you’ll be fine, you have us, not to mention you’re one of the coolest kids someone could be friends with.”

Sakura smiles at Tai as Jade perks up a little, unfolding herself and cheeks burning a little at the compliment, it reminds her of how good Tai is with kids younger than him - not that Joe isn’t great with his sister or others her age, but he has a little too much anxiety in him and she’s going through her grumpy teen phase before she’s even a teenager right now to have a consistently good streak with her.

“Have they grouped people up for tents yet?” Sora asks, looking over to Joe, the most responsible of them all and most likely to know this information (mostly because he’s in 6th grade while Sora and Tai are in 5th and she’s in 4th).

“Not yet,” he answers, pushing his glasses up his nose, “I know that they’ve been able to keep specific friends together though, so you two will be together and I’ll be with Tai for sure, as for _you_ ,” he ruffles Jade’s hair, “I’m sure they’ll put you with some nice girls.”

“Well that’s good,” Sakura nods.

They sit around for a few more minutes talking about what they’ve done so far over the summer outside of meeting up. Eventually they are beckoned to pair up and get on the coaches, Sora and Tai go to the coach for their grade and the second and third graders, Jade scuttling along after them and grabbing Tai’s arm as she looks amongst her other classmates (presumably to look for someone to sit with). Sakura and Joe’s grades are combined on the smaller of the two buses so they could sit together.

Before letting the other three run off, she pulls the big paper bag of treats from her duffel to hand them all personalised sandwich bags of snacks her dad knows they all love from their menu (plus as a little compensation for her slightly sour mood, she gives Jade Kari’s snacks too since the girl isn’t around to argue about it).

They sit quite close to the front of the coach for the sake of Joe’s minor travel sickness, his suitcase and her duffel going into the luggage space while her art satchel sticks with them (as well as the bag of gluten free snacks made for Joe and the pastries stored for her).

In the seats across and a row behind them sits the chirpiest girl in Sakura’s grade: Mimi Tachikawa. Sakura’s never actually had a class with her and she’s part of the popular crowd so she only knows the girl from her outward image and pretty much the few times she and her friends come into the cafe. Mimi’s sat in the aisle seat with one of her female friends gazing out the window, she’s conversing with the kid sat directly behind Sakura: Izzy Izumi, the smartest boy in her grade and another soul she’s never had a class with but has spoken to once or twice. As far as she knows, Izzy is the only male friend Mimi really has (that’s not actively pining after her) and they’ve been in the same classes since the 1st grade - at this point Izzy is a big part of why Mimi’s able to pass her classes outside of English, Literature and Home Ec.

They’re not talking about much, Izzy’s mostly focused on his laptop which she can hear the keys tapping away behind her. Since the bus ride is going to be about an hour and a half, she squishes the snack bag between hers and Joe’s seats, takes the two bottles of water offered to her by her teacher (one of which Joe happily takes before returning to his book), and pulls out the contents of her satchel to do some doodles (she will not do anything bigger with the bumpy roads that there will be).

* * *

As expected, about an hour into the journey it became a lot bumpier as the coaches start moving into the mountains. By this point, Joe has finished his book and has eaten a few of his treats before shoving his earplugs in and slumping in his seat with his eyes closed and Sakura put her sketch stuff away in favour of just daydreaming. While eating one of her danishes, she halves it and passes it to Izzy behind her when she hears him grumbling about wanting something to eat (he brightly thanks her and would’ve shared it with Mimi were she not asleep).

“Hey,” the boy behind her calls, leaning forward as she twists in her seat to face him, “you heard about all the weird weather?”

Her eyebrows scrunch a little, she notices that most of the people around him are asleep and figures he’s talking to her just to talk to someone - not that she minds it - nonetheless, she shakes her head at his statement, “not much.”

He nods, as if expecting her answer to be what it was, before looking down at his computer screen and typing something out, “I’ve been using my, very limited, internet connection to research what’s been going on and from the looks of it places are being hit by some extreme weather.”

“What, like, rain? Heatwaves?”

“Kinda, but way more extreme. Some places have gotten so flooded by weird coloured water they’ve had to move to adjacent towns, and others have gotten so hot or cold that things are freezing or catching on fire.”

She recoils a little and he turns his laptop to face her so she can read the little section of an article he’s highlighted, “ _wow_ , why d’you think that’s happening?”

He shrugs, leaning back in his seat as the coach comes to a stop, most of the sleeping or unfocused kids being jolted from their states though a few needed extra nudges by their friends. Joe looks up, taking out his earplugs and staring a little restlessly out of the window.

The teacher overseeing them, a tall, orange haired woman named Mrs Hitachiin who always looks a little _too_ prepared for whatever situation she's taking her kids into, stands and projects her voice down the isle of the coach.

“Alright, children, Mr Fujiyama has the list of those you’ll be grouped with, you’re paired with a friend so I don’t want to hear any complaints, you got that?” There are a few muted responses before she continues, “please don’t leave anything on the coaches and leave in an orderly fashion, collect your luggage and Mr Fujiyama will take it from there.”

She gets up a little quickly, stretching out her stiff legs and throwing her satchel onto her back and helping Joe to his feet. She offers a small wave to Izzy before she and Joe climb out of the coach. They go over to the stacked bags and collect their belongings, she swings her duffel over her shoulders as Joe fought with his suitcase to get it around all the pebbles and small stones in the gravel of the car park.

“Troupe Seven!” Mr Fujiyama yells across the car park, standing by the entrance to the camp with a clipboard in hand and several first aid bags by his feet waving another group of kids down the trail to their tent set up space. “Troupe Seven! That’s: Joe Kido, Tai Kamiya, Sora Takenouchi, Matt Ishida, Sakura Motoyoa, Izzy Izumi, Mimi Tachikawa, Takeru Takaishi and Jade Kido! Troupe Seven please join me over here with your belongings!”

She helps Joe with his suitcase and they go over to Mr Fujiyama first, he nods at them and ticks them off the list, watching the coaches as Sora all but shoves Tai in the direction of the teacher with Jade clumsily following behind with her messenger bag at her hip, and Izzy helps Mimi off their coach. Sakura doesn’t know a Matt _or_ a Takeru but she assumes they’re the two blonde boys heading in their direction with backpacks on.

“So, due to the unfortunate withdrawal of Kari, we’ve been left with an odd number and we have to shuffle a few things around,” Mr Fujiyama explains, scribbling on his sheet of paper and drawing lines connecting names plus little tent scribbles. He begins mumbling a little bit but he’s loud enough for all of them to hear him, “okay, so, the group was already slightly uneven in the first place but I blame Kiyumi for that, so I guess we’ll do this,” he brightens up then lifting one of the first aid bags off the floor and handing it to Joe, “well, Joe, since you’re the oldest, you’re Troupe Leader. Now, the tents aren't really big enough for more than three people, so your tent groups are: Matt and Tai, Joe and Izzy, Sakura, Sora _and_ Mimi, then Jade and Takeru. I figure I can trust you youngest to get along and feel free to use the fourth tent to store all your belongings to save space.”

He points them in the direction of the hill and staircase up to a shrine, a post with a tacked on sign labelled _7_ sits there behind a few tents thankfully already set up for the group. Sakura shifts her bag to help Joe with his suitcase again, this time making sure he’s okay with the first aid bag because that looks _heavy_. They followed Mr Fujiyama’s advice and put most of their main luggage in the fourth tent though most of them kept something on them; Izzy his laptop, Jade her little hip pouch of origami paper, Joe the medical/emergency food bag, Takeru his backpack, and herself her art satchel.

“Race ya to the shrine!” Tai suddenly yells, darting for the steps and beginning a somewhat long sprint upwards.

Sakura makes a small noise of surprise while Sora and Joe call after him. She and Sora take off running, darting up the stairs before the rest of their Troupe could even say anything, Sakura can only assume the rest are following by the sound of other footsteps. By the time they get to the top, she’s quite breathless, she spots Tai already in a tree, snoozing away without a care in the world; Sora darts off to the field next to the shrine while Sakura pants and sits by the door of the little building. The others make it up slowly, Takeru bolts into the grass with Matt chasing after him, Izzy breathlessly sits beside her and starts tapping away at his laptop (this prompting her to pull her camp-specific sketchbook and a pencil to start sketching Tai up in his tree), Mimi goes off to pick flowers - surprisingly spry for a girl Sakura didn’t think was very athletic - and Jade waits at the top of the stairs, having walked up while folding a little origami swan and waiting while Sakura catches Joe’s laboured groans as he climbs up the last step.

“You have wonderful drawings for a fourth grader,” Izzy comments, leaning slightly away from his computer to peek at her work-in-progress Tai sketch. While he phrased his compliment slightly strangely, she knows he doesn’t mean to insult her by it, she’s been drawing from the minute she could hold a pencil and she could say the one thing she’s proud of is her higher level art skills to most people her age (by no means is it perfect, but it is pretty good).

“Thanks, my dad has some of my old paintings up in the cafe and it’s kind of embarrassing, but I get to paint the cafe logo all over the place when he wants to redecorate so it has its perks,” she giggles, hunching over her drawing a little, her tongue poking between her teeth as she tries to get one of Tai’s legs as proportionally correct as she could.

They can hear the chatter of children at the bottom of the mountain, classmates running around, yelling for each other, up by the shrine it was quieter, more peaceful, until something cold landed on her ear; Izzy lets out a small peep when the same thing hits him, it’s _snow_ , in _August_. She turns, looking towards the sky and squinting as more snow starts to fall and gets in her eyes.

“Joe’s complaining about the snow,” Jade says, she’s suddenly in front of them, shaking snowflakes from her hair and adjusting her glasses, “he says we should shelter in the shrine before it gets worse.”

Sakura looks to Izzy, shrugging one shoulder as she spots her friend yelling up at Tai. She sighs, smiling a little, and slides the shrine door open while ushering Jade inside - who bows to the little statue inside and thanks it for providing them shelter. It’s a good thing they do take shelter, all of a sudden a blizzard starts and the three of them are lucky they’re the first inside, the others look _freezing_ when they scramble inside.

Joe dotes over Jade as any brother would when he gets inside (practically pulling Tai by his ear and throwing him at Sakura), making sure she wasn’t exposed to the cold too much. She manages to slap his hands away enough for him to just keep an eye on her from a step away as the rest of their troupe comes running in, Matt awkwardly checking Takeru while the girls dust off their hats and slide the door closed.

“I’m not the only one seeing snow is August, right?” Tai asks a little breathlessly, the hammering on the roof really being the only confirming factor he should need but… it is pretty out there.

Matt huffs, probably as cold as Sora in his sleeveless top, just clearly a little grumpier, “ _yes_ , there is snow in August, if there wasn’t we wouldn’t all be crammed in here.”

Sakura catches Tai’s shirt before he leaps forward into a fight like he normally would when someone gave him attitude like that, he looks at her and she manages a flash of a glare to get him to chill out; he folds his arms and huffs. She isn’t sure how long they all stand in the small shrine, awkwardly bumping into each other’s elbows, stretching locked knees and shoulders, and mumbling pointless conversation (mostly about the snow) to the closest person they knew on a level that wasn’t we-talked-properly-today knew.

Before they knew it - mostly from trapped awkwardness - the noise on the roof stops, Sakura, stuck at the back of the shrine, watches Jade weasel through the others’ legs so she and Takeru can slide the door open.

“The blizzard stopped!” The blonde boy grins, springing outside with a holler about snowmen and Matt exasperatedly following after him. The rest follow suit, saying something or other before letting their shoes crunch through the fresh layer; she watches Jade throw a pile of snow over herself with a grin, even making Joe laugh a little through his pneumonia anxiety.

A light catches her eye, catches all their eyes, a green light show shining in the sky, breaking through clouds and drawing everyone out into the field. Tai calls for Izzy and the boy appears at her side a moment later, laptop bag dutifully on his back and looking as amazed as the rest of them.

“What _is_ that?” Jade breathes, hand latched around Joe’s.

Sora seems at a loss for words, “m-maybe an Aurora?”

Izzy snorts and shuts down the idea quick as lightning, _apparently_ they’re way too far south for northern lights but not far enough south to avoid summer snow. She grumbles quietly, bouncing on her feet to keep herself warm as the snow sneaks its way into her shoes - while she may not have anything covering her legs that well, at least she has _sleeves_. Joe shivers from slightly in front of her, rubbing his arms.

“I really think we should go back inside, maybe back down to camp again before we all get pneumonia.”

“And miss this?” Matt scoffs, hand hovering near Takeru but not directing grabbing him (she thinks she sees him sneaking glances at Joe), “the sky is, like, short-circuiting!”

Sakura squints at the sky when something changes, the green lights move around, some forming a green ring almost like fire, and within that nine white dots appear like big stars. The dots start to grow, it takes them a second to realise their coming _towards_ them over just getting bigger and their screams and yelps fill the field as these once small lights crash into the snow before them, Sakura falls backwards with a squeak, breathing heavily and staring wide-eyed at the mini crater carved through the snow.

“Everyone!” Sora calls out, the mist created by the lights landing clouding everyone’s visions for a few moments, “are you alright!?”

“We’re still here!” Matt calls back, Sakura spots the two sets of siblings within the group before anyone else.

“What _was_ that?” Joe asks, the mist settling somewhat enough to let her see him better; he stands, reaching down and helping Jade to her feet. Sakura stays on the ground despite her legs freezing at the contact with the snow.

“Meteors?” She supplies a little unhelpfully, looking between the people she can see and noticing Izzy’s spiky hair next.

From the holes in the ground, pillars of light shoot upwards, startling little cries from the youngest of them. Objects shrouded in more light float out, and, one by one, the nine of them reach out and grab them, Sakura scrambling to kneel and clasp hers in both her hands. It was warm to the touch but felt slick like metal. She’s sure the group would have been throwing questions at each other for the next several minutes had the sound of water not cut them all off; the snowy mist finally cleared enough for her to catch sight of everyone once before the giant wave of water crashed down onto them and took her vision from her.


	2. Day 1: Utter Confusion and Far too much Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Odaiba Day !! (It’s a little late on my end but hopefully it’s still Odaiba day for someone ^^; and if not, well Happy Late Odaiba Day)
> 
> So I shuffled around events a little bit to make it all fit into one day rather than go into a second like the end of the Gabumon episode does, so, yeah, that’s the format of this, everything is explored through days but I won’t necessarily cover every day.

Honestly? Sakura can’t tell if everything hurts or if her muscles are just tense from the absolute madness that just occurred. A groan works its way from her throat, alerting _something_ at her side that lets out a high pitched gasp and presumably gets closer; she takes a second, feeling the sun against her closed eyelids, and twists her torso so she lifts her top half off the… sand(?) beneath her with her forearms before even attempting to open her eyes.

Her hair’s wet, and the sudden sound of waves makes that make sense (considering she just got attacked by a random tsunami back at camp she isn’t totally surprised at ending up on a beach), and sand clings to her skin rather uncomfortably, a patch tickling at her lower eyelashes and another threatening to get stuck in her ear.

Despite the events back at camp, this beach doesn’t _look_ totally unnatural, there’s sand - lots of it - some rocks closer to a cliff face, the sea grazing against her left side, and seashells of some kind all over the place.

It takes her another second to realise her bag isn’t on her back and she shoots onto her knees, a shell she can’t see digging into her knee, she doesn’t care - _something is going on_ and she doesn’t know what. She brushes the sand away from her face, looking left out at the barren but beautiful ocean, then sparing a glance to her right.

A high pitched scream escapes her, her body naturally tumbling back into the water to get away from the sight before her; there’s a butterfly-type-thing hovering a couple feet away from her, it’s so much bigger than a normal butterfly, slightly chubby, yellow body with giant black eyes and intricately patterned wings and antennae. It stares at her, and she’s honestly more scared over the fact it’s eyes have more emotion in them than she expects them to have; it’s buzzing, she can’t tell whether it just does that naturally because of it’s wings, or because it has some pent up emotions right now - _it probably wants to eat her._

“You’re finally here!” The thing seems to positively burst, zipping around her head about three times before squishing into her cheek and nuzzling her face with giddy giggles. It's surprisingly fuzzy for what she assumes is a butterfly, far more fur than scales, or, whatever it is butterflies have; she wants to pull away and scream again, but another part of her, the more curious side, and maybe something deeper down, wants to know who this is.

“U-Um.” She pauses to cough, her throat a little raw from her scream, the creature pulls away and it’s eyes practically shimmer at her, “j-just who- no - what are you?”

The creature giggles, doing a little somersault in the air before stretching it’s stubby arms out like its trying to show its whole self off, “I’m Puroromon! A Digimon!”

Her eyes dart between ‘Puroromon’s’, eyebrows furrowing and mouth turning down to a frown, “…am I supposed to know what that is?”

“Nope!”

She squints, “right.”

Suddenly the appearance of this… Digimon is far less scary than it was originally been, Puroromon doesn't exactly scream _killer butterfly_ or killer anything really; the little cat-like smile is anything but scary after her rather deadpan admittance to Sakura not needing to know anything about what's happening.

She finally sighs after a second staring, “okay, _okay_. I'm not gonna act like this is normal but I won't scream at you anymore, kay?”

Puroromon flies into her again, nuzzling back into her cheek with a delighted laugh, “that is a-okay with me, Sakura!” She doesn't bother asking how she knows her name.

She pulls Puroromon away from her cheeks to start running her hands through her hair, her ponytail is loose so to help it all dry a little better and to run her hands through it easier she takes her scrunchie out, slipping it back into her wrist; grains of sand fall out of her hair like dandruff on a bad day. She stretches her arms above her head before her earlier concern comes back to mind: her bag, she looks around her immediate area for it but doesn't see anything other than Puroromon’s curious gaze. Maybe she knows where it is, so, Sakura simply asks.

“You wouldn't happen to know where my bag is, would you? Satchel, pencils and stuff in it?”

“Oh that!” Puroromon nods, fluttering in the direction of the rocks by the cliff, “I took it off when you washed up, figured you'd prefer it to not get wet, it had a little thing on it too! Didn't seem like the thing that's good getting wet either.”

“Huh,” her head tilts to the side but she gets up nonetheless, stretching out her legs with a mild groan and brushing off as much sand from her person as she can, “well, thanks, that's super nice of you.”

The walk to the rocks is good to stretch her legs out after being sat with them folded so long, her steps do manage to get sand in her shoes though which is more than a little annoying even if her socks were also uncomfortably wet.

The wall of rocks isn't as sharp as she expects it to be, many of them being easy enough for her to safely clamber up to follow Puroromon; they don't quite reach the top of the cliff so it's not like she can go running into the forest, but it's high enough that she can mostly see any danger that could head their way from the beach and/or sea.

Puroromon slips between a gap in some of the rocks as Sakura sits down to take her shoes and socks off, laying the socks next to her to dry while shaking and smacking the sole of her shoes to try and get all the sand out (when she's done the best she can with that she lays them next to her too). The Digimon pops back up after she puts her second shoe down, her satchel proudly held in the buzzing bug’s little paws; the device on it is new though, the little gizmo that fell from the sky at camp has somehow attached itself to one of the straps of the bag, the metal of its outer shell reflecting the sunbeams that beat down on them.

“Wonder what this does,” she hums quietly, tapping the little screen on the front to see if it does anything, it doesn't.

She feels Puroromon watching her as she opens it up to inspect her stuff, nothing too bad: her tools are all okay and the only things mildly damaged by the water it the top right corner of her sketchbook and the back itself, even the device on the strap looks fine. She sighs in relief.

“So,” the Digimon starts, “you draw?”

“I'm surprised you know what that is.”

Puroromon’s face moves, like she's raising an eyebrow she doesn't have, an expression that communicates the crossed arms she'd do if she had arms long enough to cross, “I'm a Digimon not a hermit.”

Sakura manages a snort, pulling her sketchbook out, “point taken.” She flips open the cover, and smiles at the half finished drawing of Tai she started back at camp.

Puroromon sets down on her shoulder, a small ooo echoing in her ear, “that’s really good!”

She laughs sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck and blushing lightly, “thanks, I think I’ll finish this one in a minute,” she smiles, flipping to a fresh page and grabbing a pencil from her bag, “you mind if I draw you?”

A choked yet excited squeak sounds from her left and Puroromon wizzes off her shoulder to hover in front of her, eyes shimmering again but this time like she’s going to cry. The two laugh at each other, Puroromon wordlessly getting into her little arms-outstretched position and kicking her stubby feet out until Sakura giggles again and starts drawing.

They sit like that for a little while, quietly soaking up each other's presences and listening to the world around them. The crash of the waves sounds nicer from up here over when it’s right next to her, it provides a serene moment amidst the confusion that still jumps through hoops in her brain. Puroromon’s buzzing provides a sound that reminds her of the standing fan that sits in the corner of her room during hot summer days; the thought of home runs through her head faster than she can catch it, the sound of something breaking her from the silent atmosphere.

She looks up from her drawing almost immediately, head whipping to her left where the noise - the scream - came from; Puroromon drops her pose, whole being tensing and the buzzing of her wings suddenly becoming more intense. The scream cuts through the air again and she gasps, throwing her stuff back in her bag and ditching both that, and her shoes and socks to half jump from her rock seat and call out:

“Jade!”

She's heard the younger girl scream before, mostly at spiders when she was slightly younger and still cried at them over trying to ignore them like she does now. The tuft of black hair is easy to spot amidst the general brightness of the area, sprinting around the corner of the cliff with a turtle-looking thing following after her - it isn’t following her in the same way Puroromon follows Sakura, she can almost feel the meaner intent behind the chase, and Puroromon’s disposition doesn't help things.

“What is that?!” She exclaims, catching Jade as the smaller girl barrels into her, half dry and smelling like sea water with red eyes wet with unshed tears.

“It's a Kamemon,” Puroromon says, squinting at the Digimon that's suddenly stopped a few feet away from them, simply staring from behind its helmet, “I haven't met one particularly aggressive before…”

Jade shifts, sniffling and aggressively wiping her eyes as she moves to stand just behind Sakura, she lets her, much preferring the thought of keeping her safe herself considering it doesn't look like she has anything hovering around her like Puroromon.

“It's been chasing me since I got my bearings down the beach,” Jade mumbles into her back.

The sand beneath Sakura’s bare feet feels cool despite the midday sun, another shell hidden beneath the surface layer scratching at her heel and making her shift. This shift seems to set something off, the Kamemon moves its torso forward, taking an almost run-like stance at them, it's arm facing the ocean pulled back above its head.

“Sakura,” Puroromon half growls, the most serious noise she's heard from the Digimon all day, “move!”

“ _Water Shot_!”

The Kamemon’s arm moves, fast, the ocean at their side moving with it and firing a concentrated beam of water at the trio. The girls move fast enough to only get clipped by the water though that's still enough to knock them over and hurt a hell of a lot more than Sakura expects it to, drawing a groan out of her from where she lays like a shield over Jade who looks up at her with wide eyes and sipping wet hair soaking up the sand again; Puroromon dispels a good portion of the water with a series of pink bubbles she expels from her mouth, growling in the direction of Kamemon like there isn't the risky size difference between them.

“What's your deal?!” Puroromon asks their attacker, buzzing growing more intense by the second, “what did they do?!”

But the Kamemon remains silence, helmet-covered eyes shifting between Sakura and Jade prone on the ground to Puroromon hovering protectively above them. Sakura isn't facing it, so she can't tell what it's doing, what it's deliberating, but she does hear it call out again.

“ _Pointer Arrow_!”

A hissing noise like a firework goes off and after a second Puroromon goes flying, an arrow-shapes missile of sorts throwing the small creature violently into the sand.

“Puroromon!” Sakura gets up without thinking, messily scrambling over to her downed partner while Jade runs to climb up the rocks behind her. She holds the butterfly in her arms, eyes switching between the unconscious creature and the Kamemon still staring them down, seemingly moving to attack again. “C’mon Puroromon, you've got more in you than that, I know you do.”

She doesn't think too much when she pulls Puroromon to her chest and starts haphazardly climbing the rocks to where her bag, shoes, and Jade all wait. They have the high ground over the still silent Kamemon now, but it still has ranged attacks that could knock them down if it wanted to, and them falling from this height, no matter how smooth the rocks are, won't be any good for them. Jade frets over Puroromon quietly while Sakure stares down the Kamemon, it stares back, neither of them move for a few minutes but when Sakura edges towards the side of the rock it’s eyes follow her. She exhales, leg twitching as she slowly moves down the formation, back straight, hardly hunched up, and keeping her eyes on the Kamemon; if she can get it to keep paying attention to her, she can lead it down the beach away from Jade and Puroromon, she doesn’t have any idea of what she’ll do with it when she leads it away but she’ll burn that bridge when she gets to it.

The water behind it shifts and she finds her eyes darting to its reeled back arm, a whine vibrates in her throat; before it can fire while she’s still high up and in front of Jade, she takes a quick look at the drop and jumps.

“ _Water Shot_!”

Oh that feels _way worse_ as a direct hit. She coughs with a choked groan, back against the sand and ears ringing just enough to make Jade and Puroromon’s (oh good she’s up) calls of concern just that bit muffled. She pulls her leg up to try and sit up but can't seem to will her torso to move much, arms simply moving to shove her (now more) wet hair from her eyes.

“Just stay there.” There's a weight on her pulled up knee, one she manages to recognise as Puroromon before her elbows hoist at least her shoulders and head upwards.

“Don't get hurt again,” she says, groaning as she sits up to hug Puroromon lightly.

“I won't if you won't,” the butterfly mumbles, leaning into her hands.

There's a mutual nod, a light shimmering where Jade still sits.

“Deal.”

The light above them brightens, the pair and the Kamemon looking up though Jade is simply staring, wide eyed, mouth agape at something atop the rocks. Puroromon pushes off her knee with a small smirk, a second light coming down like a tube around the little Digimon, the Kamemon takes a step back, arm moving along with another wave of the ocean.

“ _Puroromon Digivolve to - FanBeemon_!”

The lights die down and in place of the ice small butterfly is a much bigger bug. The yellow of her former form is still the prominent colour, this time complimented by stripes of a more honey-like hue seemingly having a more metallic appearance to them; she has six legs, each with a claw on the end though the two smaller front legs have a second claw unlike the main four. Her eyes are big and green, almost mimicking Sakura’s, her antennae being a bluer shade of the girl’s hair; she has four wings still as intricately designed as before, and a jagged stinger seems the deadliest part of her.

The Kamemon growls, the first noise that isn't an attack, and FanBeemon growls back, eyes narrowing and wings buzzing just like before.

“ _Torto-Tackle_!”

That's new, the Kamemon charges forward, kicking up sand behind it before it jumps and curls into its shell, launching forward in an attempt to, well, tackle FanBeemon out of the air. The bug easily dodges, flitting through the air to watch the Kamemon land roughly in the sand, and aim her own payback attack at it.

“ _Gear Stinger_!”

Tiny, serrated stingers fire at the Digimon, knocking it back towards the water as it tries to avoid them. FanBeemon shifts, sending out a slightly larger stinger just as it lets its guard down to attack; even flying into the water it makes barely more than a grunting noise, weird.

The three of them let out loud sighs, Sakura falling back into the sand and raising her arms up its a breathless, “woo!” Something Jade and FanBeemon mimic at their own excited volumes.

Another moment of nothing, FanBeemon buzzes over, reaching out one of her front legs to help her to her feet. She wrings out her hair for what feels like the third time, more sand falling from it than from when she first woke up; she presses a hand to her stomach, a bruise, at least, being there from the Kamemon attack, and blows a stray strand of hair from her eyes before turning to the rock formation and beginning to climb it again, warily avoiding the wet patches on the smooth surfaces with FanBeemon basically spotting just behind her.

Jade yanks her into a hug the second she makes it to the top, pulling her back to rest against the cliff while FanBeemon sets down next to her bag, sniffing at the device on her bag. She takes a second to sit there with Jade before giving her one last squeeze and breaking from her hold to sit at the edge of the rock and brush the sand off her feet (a needlessly painful endeavour) and pull her shoes and socks back on.

“Now that that’s over with,” she breathes, swivelling around to face the other two and crossing her legs, “I have questions. Firstly,” she looks to Jade who adjusts her glasses and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, “what happened to you? Do you… not have a Digimon with you?”

The girl shakes her head, “I woke up on the beach, a little further up than here and I was propped up against the cliff - so, something might have been there but by the time I woke up they were gone. I do have this, though.” She digs into her jean pocket and pulls out a device the same as the one on Sakura’s bag.

FanBeemon hums, looking between the two devices as Sakura pulls her bag towards her to slip it on, her hand running over the gizmo.

“That’s weird,” her Digimon says after a second, “if you have a digivice a Digimon should be with you…”

Sakura watches Jade shrug one shoulder, the corner of her mouth downturned slightly, “I dunno, maybe whatever was supposed to be with me didn’t like how I looked… I’m not exactly…” she trails off with mother half shrug, clipping her ‘digivice’ (as FanBeemon called it) to her jeans next to the little pouch of origami paper she still has.

Sakura doesn’t bring up the other girl’s insecurities, now really isn’t the time when they’re still unsure of everything going on and getting her more upset while she’s clearly exhausted from all the running isn’t going to help either of them find the others. Speaking of that, she then looks to FanBeemon who scuttles over to lay over her legs like a big, bug-shaped cat.

“So, you got bigger?” She asks, running her hands along the Digimon’s back.

“I digivolved!” FanBeemon replies brightly, “your will and determination gave me strength, I got power from your power and so I got strong enough to digivolve!”

She nods with a hum, it doesn’t exactly feel like it makes sense but then at the same time it does and she honestly has far too many questions to be able to process by herself right now. Jade has been in a bad mood all day and a nap might do her some good and if everything stays at least mildly peaceful, Sakura might be able to finish one of her current drawings and that might help with the whole de-stressing bit.

“We have friends, I don’t know if they’re here but they were at camp with us and I’m pretty sure got these… digivices. Do you know if there’s any easy-ish way to find them?”

FanBeemon hops up from her lap, wings buzzing as she hovers between the girls, she brings one of her front legs to her mouth, tapping at what would be her chin. “Okay if I concentrate I can send this out to a Tentomon your friends might be with if Motimon’s digivolved like me already. If I can't, we might get a bigger crowd than we need right now,” she laughs a little sheepishly, closing her eyes as her antennae light up, a small hum emanating from them as they send out whatever it is she's trying to send out. “If your friends are here, that should reach at least one of them,” her eyes close again, this time she looks like she's smiling without the actual smile over trying to concentrate.

“Okay,” she sighs in relief, rubbing the heels of her hands into her eyes, “now what?”

“Nooow,” her partner says, tone a half-teasing, half-serious one, “you and Jade take a break while I keep guard!”

The boldness in her statement is enough to get a giggle out of them both, Jade immediately rubbing her eyes and laying on her side to presumably go to sleep; Sakura shuffles back over to the cliff, leaning back against the cliff and stretching out her legs; she lazily rests her bag against her side and allows Jade to use her leg as a pillow.

“Are you not gonna sleep?” FanBeemon asks after they're sure Jade has drifted off.

She shakes her head, “nah, figured you'd want the company, and I can sleep when it's dark…. It gets dark here, right?”

FanBeemon giggles, “yes, it gets dark.”

She exaggerates a sigh of relief, wiping her forehead and pulling her sketchbook back out of her bag to finish off Puroromon’s drawing. “I'm gonna have to make a new drawing for you, since you're bigger.”

They lapse back into quiet, the waves crashing softer than before, and the sounds of both the beach in front of her and the forest behind mingle with the soft snores of Jade, and the scratching of pencil on paper as Sakura draws. She wonders if the others are together, or if they're in a few different splinter groups or pairs like she and Jade are - jeez, the only person that might be able to handle a Joe without a Jade is either her or Tai, and hopefully that little kid TK isn't totally alone. She rubs her forehead, completely over this already and just desperately wanting to go back to camp however far away that is (and judging by the beach that she knows is nowhere near camp, that’s looking to be pretty far away).

She reties her hair back in it’s messy ponytail at the tail end of her drawing spree, strands still half-dry and damp against her neck but she’s mostly dry now which is nice.

There’s a noise then, a rustle of leaves from the forest and voices so loud Jade bolts up to rush on her glasses and stare up the cliff where the trees are. FanBeemon looks up too but doesn’t make any movement to check what it is, only taking Sakura’s sketchbook and backing up - is she clearing wa-

“We are never fighting that thin-woah!”

Two figures tumble off the cliff, Sakura gasps and reacts on instinct, reaching out and grabbing one of the two people around the stomach to stop them from completely throwing themselves off the rocks to worse injury - Jade frantically does the same with the other person and two other voices call down from the cliff asking if everyone’s alright.

“Tentomon!” FanBeemon cheers, wings buzzing harder in her excitement.

Sakura heaves a sigh of relief and looks at the people she and Jade managed to pin and save. One is Izzy, his laptop bag still hefted on his shoulder with his digivice hooked to the strap, his hair is frizzier than normal and a small cut under his eye; the other is Matt, he looks rather disgruntled, the back of his ear bleeding a little bit, the red liquid dripping down his neck, and his hair is tangled with leaves - his digivice hooked to his trousers.

“You look like a mess,” the blond remarks bluntly when he rights himself on the rock.

Sakura glares half-heartedly, immediately letting go of him to cross her arms and lean back against her rock with a tired sigh, “thank you, _so much_ , for your observation.”

“We got half drowned by a turtle, dude, I think we’re allowed to look a little dishevelled,” Jade says, picking a stray twig from Izzy’s hair and flicking it into the sand, “besides, what happened to you two?”

Sakura looks up at the cliff, another bug-like Digimon - who she assumes is Tentomon given it’s and FanBeemon’s (who still has her sketchbook she’d like to add) current conversation - and a fluffy wolf-looking Digimon with a big horn on it’s head. So, the boys have partners too, okay, at least that’s not just a ‘her thing’.

“We got in a fight with something Motimon called a ‘Kiwimon’,” Izzy explains, rubbing the back of his neck and rolling his shoulder, she hears it pop. “It was pretty risky to stay as long as we did but Motimon and Tsunomon… what was it?” He looks up at the three Digimon.

“Digivolved,” the wolf replied.

“Digivolved, right,” Izzy nods, “they digivolved into Gabumon.” He points to the wolf. “And Tentomon.” He points at the insect. “Then we fought it and ran when we had the chance.”

Both girls nod, Jade readjusting her glasses and standing up on the rock; Sakura stands as well, snatching her sketchbook off a sheepish FanBeemon and putting it back into her bag while the boys stand too.

“So, you have one too?” Matt asks after a second. FanBeemon stares at him.

Sakura turns, “oh, right, yeah, boys: this is FanBeemon, be nice, she’s been very helpful.”

Matt crouches to give Izzy a boost back up the cliff (Tentomon and FanBeemon grabbing him to pull him the rest of the way) while he asks his next question, “and, Jade?”

Jade shakes her head, giving Sakura a moment to clasp her hands before standing on them, “I woke up by myself, but I have a Digivice like the rest of you do so I guess that means something.”

Sakura hauls her up as far as her arms can get her, Izzy and Gabumon reaching down to grab the small girl under her arms and pull her onto the safety of solid ground. Sakura brushes her hands together, sand from Jade’s shoes sprinkling off them, she looks at Matt, who’s watching her with a raised eyebrow.

“What?”

The blonde blinks, seemingly snapping out of whatever thought process he was going through. He shrugs, “uh-nothing, just didn’t take you for the type to be able to lift that kind of weight around.”

There’s an indignant hey from above them.

“Psh.” She waves her hand, chewing the inside of her cheek for a second, “she weighs, like, fifty pounds, I’ve hefted sacks of flour around heavier than her since I was old enough to beg my dad to help out in the shop. It’s fiiiine.”

He seems to squint at her for a second, either processing what she said or not believing her at all (and at this point Sakura can barely care, she just wants to get off this stupid beach); he runs a hand through his hair, a handful of small sticks clattering into the rocks, while he exhales a long breath.

He groans then, clasping his hands together and crouching again, “well, whatever, let’s just get out of here.”

She nods, ”gladly.”

She brushes down her skirt and steps forward, getting a solid footing on his clasped hands and subconsciously counting to three before pushing down on his shoulders to boost upwards. She grabs Izzy’s arms and uses the cliff itself as extra help in making it up; she takes an extra second to get reoriented (the grass feels normal which is reassuring), before turning back around and helping the others pull Matt up. 

Once they're all up and standing - partners by their sides if the double bout of buzzing tells them anything - Izzy claps his hands and looks out into the trees.

“Okay, so, forest,” he looks to the rest of them, “we don’t want to go back the way we came so… which way are we following the cliff.”

Jade looks to their left and points, stating, “Well, there _were_ phone boxes that way but the Kamemon also came from that direction so who knows what else could be there. Even if the phones could be useful I’d rather _not_.”

“Away we go then,” Tentomon proclaims, zooming off down their right path with FanBeemon hot on his heels (-does he have heels?).

Gabumon stays by Matt’s side at they walk, the boy leaving his gloved hand atop the Digimon’s head and running it through his fur.

“So… you’re TK’s brother?” She asks as they walk, Izzy and Jade dashing off to investigate the flora along their path.

“Uh- yeah, kind of,” he stutters, brushing the last of the leaves out of his hair, “our parents are divorced, I live with our dad and he lives with our mom so I don’t get to see him very often.”

She nods, folding her arms behind her back and smiling at Jade as she holds up some oddly-star-shaped blue flower, “Jade’s parents are divorced too, but, she and all her brothers live with their dad. I live with my dad too, but- uh- my parents aren’t exactly divorced.”

She hears him hum and looks over to see him staring at her, “she sat behind us on the bus, your friends- uh- Tai and Sora? They were sat behind her but she seemed pretty tense until TK eventually turned around and started talking to her.”

“Yeah, well, her friend - Tai’s little sister - she was supposed to come along too but she got sick this morning so couldn’t make it. Jade’s not big on starting conversation if she’s by herself.”

She leaves him with that then, darting forward to spring a hug around Jade’s shoulders and watch FanBeemon circle around clusters of flowers with Tentomon, the two rambling about something to do with the path they’re following; at least some of them know where about they are. Izzy walks beside her, poking at his digivice and turning it around in his hands to try and suss out something about it - what exactly that it, Sakura doesn’t know, and frankly wants to let him focus on it rather than interrupt his thought process; he’s pretty smart, if anyone can figure out anything about their situation, their best bet is Izzy.

Kind of like the beach, the forest appears relatively normal, at least from where they walk at the edge of it. None of the trees are particularly wild in colour, soft peach and baby blue are the only remotely odd colours she can spot amongst the waves of green and red. The flowers are the strangest, the colours range from vivid yellows to dull greys and their shapes go from ordinary to abstract, she can only hope none are poisonous. Additionally, she doesn’t seem to spot any food around, the sound of a river in their general line of walking is helpful enough in telling them they’re not going to get dehydrated, but no food in her current field of view means there either isn’t any around, or it’s deeper in the woods, which, if Izzy and Matt’s account is anything to go by, isn’t exactly the safest option either. So, overall, they probably won’t die dehydration, but they’ll either starve if they’re not equipped enough to venture into the forest, or get attacked by a Digimon they can’t deal with; their chances of survival seem a little rough. Great.

The two bug Digimon of their group continue leading the way with little snippets about the surrounding area’s flora and geography either refreshing themselves of their knowledge, or trying to make enough conversation to ease the tension the unknown brings to the four kids with them. Sakura turns to look back and make sure Matt and Gabumon are still with them and the chipper wolf offers her a smile and a wave, one she gladly returns - Matt seems to be digging through his pockets for something.

She yawns then, turning back the way they’re walking to stretch her arms above her head as the sun slowly inches below the peak of a distant mountain - at least the day/night cycle seems normal (Izzy verbalises a similar thought). The sky is a vibrant shade of orange when they reach the river they’ve been hearing; the orange in the sky is the same colour as the cat that lingers in the alley next to the cafe, it’s the same colour as one of her favourite paint colours Sora gifted to her last year because she never had the right shade for the other girl’s hair when she wanted to paint her like she did the boys, it’s the same colour as the fires in the cafe ovens and so many other things that make her think of home. She wonders if she’ll see her dad anytime soon.

“You think we could follow it up?” Jade asks, looking down at the clear water, “I mean, it’s pretty hard to miss, so maybe the others are following it too, we’re bound to run into them eventually, right?”

Sakura looks down at it too, “it’s not a bad idea.” She smiles as she spots a small, pink fish, but turns back to the boys as FanBeemon comes to rest in her arms, “what do you guys think?”

Izzy nods, chin held between his fingers as he looks at the path they’ll go down if they follow the river, “honestly, it’s probably our safest option right now. We’ll still be out of the forest but maybe going further inwards could lead to us finding a good place for shelter, who knows what the conditions of this place are at night.”

“Whatever we do, I just wanna find my little brother,” Matt replies, folding his arms.

Jade nods, “and I need to find Joe. So, I guess that settles it.”

They nod unanimously and stick to pairs as they wander the thin path next to the river; Sakura watches streaks of colour flash between the small ripples in the water as fish swim up and don the current of all different colours and shapes, kind of like the flowers in the forest. She toys with the scrunchie on her wrist as her hair brushes against her face with the light breeze starting up, Fanbeemon sighs tiredly, the air tickling her hands. The sun dips lower and lower while they walk, the orange from the sky reflecting in the water like spilled oil, casing a gentle rainbow along their path.

Something nudges at her elbow, and she looks down at Gabumon who happily nuzzles into her hand when she pets him. She and FanBeemon smile at him, a gesture he returns before asking, “so, are you friends with Matt?”

She pauses, humming, “I mean, kind of? We only really met this morning, so, we’re more acquaintances than friends, but I wouldn’t mind being his friend if he really needs one right now.”

Gabumon nods, casting a glance at his partner who they spot walking next to Jade, the two of them seeming to be travelling in relative silence though mumbles of muted conversation permeate their bouts of silence.

“He and Izzy didn’t talk too much when they met up, but he seems to talk to you pretty well.”

“I guess,” she shrugs, “I just have a lot of experience talking to people, my dad runs a cafe so I work in there from time to time, you know? Well, maybe you don’t- but- anyway- and he may be acting all grumpy, but if he’s that worried about TK then he can’t be that bad.”

“Maybe he just thinks you’re cute,” FanBeemon says, looking up at her.

She chokes on a laugh, trying to stifle it before the others hear, Gabumon snickers too, “I don’t think that’s it, FanBeemon.”

“What?” The bug returns incredulously, “ _I_ think you’re cute, maybe he’s just super blind.”

She snorts again, squeezing her partner in a one-sided hug and scratching Gabumon behind the ear before ushering the wolf off to Matt. She stifles another yawn, though that seems to pass itself off to FanBeemon who yawns and leans back in Sakura’s hold.

“Ugh why is there so much walking?” Jade whines, rubbing at her eyes and kicking a stray pebble from the dirt to the water, “I’m tired!”

“Hey you had a nap earlier, you can’t complain,” FanBeemon huffs, halfheartedly glaring back at Jade as the girl stick her tongue out at them.

“Yeah, a nap on _rocks_. I’m pretty sure that was the most uncomfortable place I’ve ever slept!”

Sakura sighs, resting her chin atop FanBeemon’s head and closing her eyes for just a second, “I wouldn’t argue with her, she gets really moody when she’s tired.”

“Hey!” Izzy exclaims, pulling the groups’s attention to where the boy is pointing, “I think we found some good shelter!”

The river seems to lead into a giant lake, a piece of land circling out into a decent sized island only a single jump away from the mainland. Atop the island, is a trolley car, it seems, green and a cream shade in colour with a few scratches along the sides of it and small dents in the front; it doesn’t look like it’s hooked up to anything, it’s just sat there, maybe she’d say ominously if it wasn’t their saving grace right now. Not only is there a trolley car, but there are dozens of ditched power towards sticking out around it, they don’t seem like they're hooked up to anything but each other either; man, this world is _weird_.

“I do not think I have ever been happier to see something so creepy in my entire life,” Sakura groans, rolling her neck and staring at the car.

“No kidding. I understand how people in horror movies feel now when they wander into some random abandoned house,” Matt hums, hopping across the gap first to then help the rest of them across.

“D’you think anyone could have left it here? “ Izzy asks, wandering over and standing on his toes to peek through a window, “I mean, what’s it doing here? Why does it look totally normal? What Digimon would even drive a trolley car? Why is it just here, with no tracks?”

Matt groans, running a hand down him face, “Izzy, does it look like any of us are awake enough to care about anything right now?”

The smaller boy blushes sheepishly, “right, sorry. Why don’t you guys head in there and get some rest, I can keep watch for a couple hours then trade out with someone. Maybe we can fish in the morning for some breakfast.”

Sakura slides the door of the car open, ushering Jade inside - who drops onto a seat and closes her eyes immediately - and climbing in to watch the boys in the doorway.

“Okay,” Matt nods at Izzy’s plan, “keep Tentomon alert, write a plan on your laptop or something, see if that thing’ll help us figure out what’s going on. Stay safe.”

Tentomon nods in place of his partner, “we will!”

Then Matt’s shooing her inside and jumping in with Gabumon in tow. Jade seems asleep already, which isn’t too surprising - she _is_ younger than them, her energy isn’t going to go as far - FanBeemon seems pretty beat too, softly snoring by the time Sakura sets her down on one of the plush seats of the car; she rubs her eyes with a tired sigh, pushing hair out of her face and dropping down on the seat next to her partner, Matt and Gabumon jump on the bench next to them, across from Jade.

“Hope you don’t snore,” she shoots at the blonde, hearing him stifle a snort as she curls up on her side.

“Back at ya.”

For the first time in a long time, she manages to close her eyes and fall asleep without so much as one distraction.

* * *

“Guys!” 

They're startled awake by a bang against the glass of the carriage, Sakura groans at the same time Jade seems to, Matt grumbling something under his breath as they rub the sleep from their eyes and turn to the window. Izzy grins at them from the other side, face illuminated by the laptop in his hands as the world around them is now dark, if a moon is above them it’s hidden by the fluffy clouds now trailing across the sky.

Izzy excitedly points to the mainland, exclaiming, “it’s the others!” And beaming some more.

 _That_ wakes them up. The trio - plus Gabumon and FanBeemon - spring out of the car to stand beside Izzy and see what he’s seeing. There, on the mainland, is the rest of the group from back at camp: Tai stands at the front, an orange reptilian Digimon beside him and waving at them, Sora’s just next to him, a pink bird with her, and the others seem to fan out once they realise their four missing friends are all together - TK has some sort of hamster with wing-ears flopped over his helmet, Joe has a seal-like Digimon at his feet, and Mimi’s partner looks to be a plant of some kind.

“Where have you guys been?!” Sakura calls, dashing forward first and hopping the gap between islands to pull Tai and Sora into a much needed hug, one thats gladly reciprocated with varying mumbled questions on her wellbeing.

They pull back after a moment and she surveys the rest of their group: Matt has TK in his arms, lifting the small boy’s helmet to ruffle his hair while TK’s little Digimon happily greets Gabumon. Tai’s and Sora’s partners wave at her and FanBeemon (who happily buzzes around them, some energy regained from their rest) while Mimi and Izzy check on each other with their partners watching them. Joe has Jade squished into his side, not that it looks like she minds, and his partner laughs up at the small girl from the ground, a toothy grin bringing out a small smile from her.

Joe’s the one who answers her question, readjusting his glasses. His voice cracks as he talks: “we got _attacked_ on the beach by a giant shellfish!”

“Shellmon.” His partner fills in from the floor, raising one fin to be seen, he then grins again, seemingly addressing all those who just joined the group, “Gomamon by the way, pleasure ta meet ya!”

Fanbeemon laughs sheepishly from beside her, a proverbial bead of sweat rolling down her face; “oh dear… I guess Kamemon was angrier than I anticipated…” she mutters.

“Jeez, how’d you get out of that?” Matt asks, either not hearing, or happily disregarding FanBeemon’s awkward muttering (which, from his position next to her he would have heard) and awkwardly shaking TK’s partner’s tiny paw in greeting.

“Agumon digivolved!” TK beams, Tai and his partner blushing lightly and rubbing the backs of their necks, “he got way bigger and it was so cool!”

“It was nothin’” the Digimon in question chuckles.

TK continues to gush to his brother about the awesomeness (his words, not hers) that was Agumon’s digivolution into a bigger dinosaur named Greymon who kicked Shellmon’s butt straight into next week. The others fumble around, introducing themselves to their friends’ partners and their friends’ partners introducing themselves to them; Sakura discovers that TK’s partner is Patamon, Sora’s is Biyomon, and Mimi’s is Palmon.

“How did you guys get here?” Tai asks then, looking over the (still slightly disheveled) quartet, “it looks like you guys went through something way worse than us and we got drenched with water like a firehose.”

“Oh, that’s Kamemon alright,” FanBeemon mutters into her ear again.

Sakura chuckles, running her hand through her hair as the whole groups leaps onto the island, she quickly runs through the little details of their time from the beach to the island, Izzy sleepily filling in what he and Matt were up to before they fell into the girls - that lack of sleep must be catching up on him. Sora then explains a run in the rest of them had with some big, mean bug called Kuwagamon, plus some Monochromon they ran into earlier having a fight for territory in the place they were looking for shelter.

“Have you guys eaten yet?” Mimi asks, her stomach grumbling a little too loudly for her liking if the blush that covers her cheeks is anything to go by.

“Aha- uh- no,” Jade replies, readjusting her glasses as her own stomach growls just slightly, “we’ve all been a little too tired to care about that, we were gonna eat in the morning, catch some fish, harvest berries, ya know?”

A loud yawn from Patamon draws their attention to their other youngest, who seems just as tired as Jade was earlier - though way less volatile.

“Yeah,” Joe sighs, “we could all do with some sleep, how about you guys?”

Sakura shrugs, “I think I can last a couple hours on watch since I’ve had some sleep already, Izzy has to sleep since he’s been keeping an eye on us since earlier, though, so, make sure that happens.”

“Whatever happens, TK can’t go on watch,” Matt says, eyes hard as he looks over the area.

“What!?” The small blond whines, “why not, Matt? I can take care of myself!”

“No you can’t, you’re too young and you need your rest!”

“Look,” Mimi huffs, “I need my beauty sleep and it’s really cold out here, I don’t care who keeps guard, I just wanna go to bed.”

A mischievous glint flashes in Tai’s eye, and he creeps over to Gabumon, hands raised in a claw-like gesture, as if he’s pretending to be some sort of monster in the darkness. “Watch it, Gabumon, Mimi might try to steal your fur, so if you feel a tug in the middle of the night.” He reaches down and lifts up the loose fur over his tail, “it might be-!” He gives it a small tug, enough to send the Digimon scrambling forwards with an indignant, slightly offended grumble

“Stop it, Tai! That’s not funny.”

Matt lunges forward then, the angriest Sakura’s seen him all day, and shoves Tai backwards, “back off, he told you to stop!”

“What’s your problem?!” Tai snaps in reply, shoving the other boy back without much of a thought.

The two yell back and forth, going between shoving each other and almost grappling for whatever dominance it is they're trying to prove. Sakura’s voice seems to get lost in the crowd of other calls, and she isn’t quite sure what to do to bring at least some peace back to their group until there’s a tap on her side.

It’s TK, she looks down with a slight quirk of her eyebrow, and he points over at the two boys with a small pick-me-up gesture. She smiles slightly at him, holding out her hand for a small high five before crouching down to grab the small blonde around the torso and hoist him up to take him over to the two boys grabbing at each others’ collars by now.

“Will you guys just stop fighting!”

If a shout amongst the group won’t do it, then an up close scream from a seven-year-old might as well.

“Yelling at each other isn’t going to solve anything,” she says, mumbling a quick _thanks_ into TK’s ear before setting him down and letting him scamper off to the trolley car with Jade. “Whatever it is you two are trying to prove, drop it, at least until we’re a little more stable. You’re all tired, and hungry, everyone just needs sleep and we can eat in the morning, and _then_ we can discuss exactly what it is we need to do.”

“She’s right, Tai,” Sora pipes up, laying a hand on Sakura’s shoulder and squeezing, “we all just need to calm down and take a few hours to just break and stop caring about our problems right now.”

The pair spare one final glance at each other before begrudgingly shoving each other away, the pair of them brushing down their shirts and sparing one final glare before going their separate ways; Tai folds his arms and marches off into the trolley car without another word.

“I’ll keep an eye on the mainland,” Matt snaps, leaping back over the gap and wandering away towards a tree barely touched by the light of the moon; Gabumon spares the group a glance before carefully following after him.

The others go off to the trolley car without much much more conversation (probably too tired to worry about it, which, fair), but Sakura stays outside with FanBeemon, Sora also lingering beside her to watch Matt and Gabumon.

“Has he been like that all day?” She asks.

Sakura shakes her head, “not really, he’s been a little blunt and overly worried about TK, but, otherwise he’s been kind of quiet. Maybe Tai’s personality is too much for him to have to get used to right now, I mean, half of us _have_ only properly met today, after all.”

Sora hums, “maybe… hey, are you gonna be okay out here? You know, with all the water.”

She throws her a tight smile, “you know I’ll be fine as long as I don’t fall in.”

They share a quick hug before Sora throws a quick: “stay close to the middle then.” And disappears off into the car, leaving Sakura to drop onto the floor just in front of in and cross her legs.

The air is somewhat quiet for a few seconds, before a soft, musical sound fills the air, she recognises it as a harmonica - Yosuke used to play one - and smiles as she sees Matt playing the small instrument, Gabumon happily bobbing his head beside him.

As she does whenever she’s bored, Sakura pulls out her sketchbook for the third time that day, it’s pretty hard to see, what with it being night time and all, but she honestly just wants to throw some rough doodles around to keep herself awake; FanBeemon tries to stay up with her, even attempting to make conversation when things get too quiet, but she eventually falls asleep resting against Sakura’s side.

There’s movement after maybe thirty minutes, she’s about to wake FanBeemon up when she spots that it’s just Gabumon leaving Matt by himself to jump over to the island and come over.

“What brings you here?” She asks softly, swallowing a yawn and setting her pencil down between the pages of her sketchbook.

“Matt was complaining I was making him too hot, but really I think he just wants me to keep TK warm.”

“How sweet, D’you think you could take this one in there too, she’s making my leg fall asleep,” she chuckles, pointing at FanBeemon, “oh, and if Tai’s still awake tell him I’m not mad and he can come sit with me if he wants.”

Gabumon gives her a toothy grin, plodding forward and lifting FanBeemon off her leg and disappearing around the side of the car. There's a shuffling inside, hushed voices and a mumble of shut up from Mimi if she recognises voices at all; there's a little more shuffling until there’s shoes against dirt and Tai’s dropping to sit next to her.

“How did you know I was awake?” He asks, resting his head against her shoulder.

“Cause you can never sleep when you’re in a bad mood. Plus I assume the harmonica might be keeping you awake since you’ve never liked those things.”

He grumbles, flicking a small stone across the dirt, “it’s just Matt, he’s so moody, how did you put up with him all day?”

She giggles, “because he wasn’t moody until we ran into you guys. You know, I think it might be your personality, Tai.”

“Oh we’re insulting me now,” he says, a practiced response holding no offence, just light banter.

“I don’t think it’s anything personal though,” she lays her head atop his, poking his arm with her pencil, “but you did tease Gabumon when he asked you to stop.”

“Yeah I know, I said sorry when he came in.”

“Look at you, acting your age.”

He snorts, “puh-lease, you don’t act your age at all.”

“No I act yours.”

“I blame your friendship with Joe, why can’t you be like every other nine-year-old, annoying and unlikeable.”

“Because not everybody’s going to be like you when you were nine, Tai.”

“Oh that’s cold.” They take a moment to laugh at each other, sitting up and looking back across the lake. They spot Matt again, sat by himself by the trees, “you think I’m older than him?”

“That’s what you're worried about right now?” She asks incredulously, poking him with her pencil again, “besides, maybe? I mean you’re one of the oldest in your class and that’s saying something since your birthday was last week. Why are you even worried about that?”

Tai adjusts his goggles, folding his arms with a smug look on his face, “because if I’m older that means _I_ have authority.”

“But that would mean Joe has authority over you.”

He splutters and she laughs, she wonders if Matt can heat them from where they are and hopes that if he can, he doesn’t think they're laughing at his expense (she thinks he’d find it quite amusing if he knew it’s at Tai’s expense instead). The brunet stands, saying he's going to splash water on his face to keep himself awake with her, and wanders off to the edge of the island.

“So what _is_ Matt and TK’s deal anyway?” He asks when he wanders back over, droplets of water dripping from the spikes of his hair. “They don’t even act like siblings he just seems smothering, like, more smothering than Joe.”

Sakura shrugs, “he told me his parents are divorced, you know, like the Kidos, but he and TK don’t live together, he lives with their dad and TK lives with their mom, so camp was gonna be the first time the hung out properly in a while.”

“Oh,” he seems to pause, rubbing his chin, “that sucks, as least Joe and Jade are with their brothers at their dad’s place, and I don’t know what I’d do if my parents ever separated and split me and Kari.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s normal, most big brothers never wanna leave their little siblings,” she shrugs, sparing a glance at the sparkles dancing across the surface of the water, she’d think it were pretty if she hadn’t seen the same thing before.

“Hey don’t get all sad on me now,” Tai pokes at her cheek, “you’re supposed to be the happy peacekeeper, remember.”

She giggles, “I’m not cleaning up all your messes, Tai,” in return for the poke on the cheek she takes her pencil and pokes him in return again; he seems to react a little on impulse, grabbing the small thing and throwing it across the island (way further than he ever throws he stuff if they’re messing with each other).

“Tai! You know you're not supposed to throw these things,” she scolds, dropping her sketchbook back in her bag and shoving the thing at Tai to stand up and follow where it disappeared to. “You probably broke the lead and I don’t exactly have perfect access to pencils out here, do I?”

“I’m sorry, okay,” he calls after her, “I didn’t mean to throw it so far.”

“Tai, I swear to any god you believe in,” she pauses, watching a red piece of land she steps on curiously before continuing, “I swear if that pencil ended up in the water I am sending you in after it!”

“I deserve it!”

“Yeah ya do-wah!” She lets out a scream, the red land under her foot moving and sending her tumbling to the dirt, the waves around the island pick up and Tai runs over to drag her to her feet and closer to the middle of the land.

They stand back to back, watching the waves form a vortex on one side of the island, the water rising up like the giant wave from back at camp before bursting like a too-big bubble and showering them with the lake water.

“Can I not go half a day without getting _soaked_ please,” she mutters to herself, flicking water off her hands indignantly.

In place of the vortex, stands a giant serpent-like Digimon, growling up at the air with razor sharp fangs. The trolley car seems to come alive, the occupants inside awoken by the commotion but only Agumon and FanBeemon being brave enough to venture onto the shaking land and make it over to them.

“What is that thing?” Tai asks, mouth agape and eyes as wide as saucers.

“That’s Seadramon,” FanBeemon replies, wings buzzing with anticipation.

The island shakes, the whole thing beginning to move and leaving a trail of rocks behind in the water, if Seadramon is going somewhere, he sure wants to take them with him.

“I don’t think he knows he’s got us!” Someone calls amidst the rumbling, they look back at the car to see everyone outside, Izzy’s the one that called, waving over at them while the others half cower together.

Gabumon comes rushing over, “Matt’s still on the main land!”

A whine leaves her throat, “you’ve gotta be kidding.”

“He’s pulling us by his tail. I think we’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t notice us,” Tentomon says as they go back to the rest of the group - Gabumon sticks closely between TK and Sakura.

“Are you sure?” Agumon asks, teeth chewing on one of his claws.

The red piece of ground she saw earlier, Seadramon’s tail, shakes the ground around it as it rips it from it’s position, turning his growl and sharp teeth on them with a single swift shift in the water.

“Oh you jinxed us!” Joe cries, staring up at the thing.

“I wasn’t trying to!”

The Seadramon roars, splashing water at them again but smacking the island with his tail and making the whole thing shake to the point they all almost lose their balances.

“Ugh staying on an island was the worst possible decision we could’ve made, why did we think this would end well at all!” Sakura groans, arms wrapped around Sora’s as Seadramon wacks the island again, sending another tremor across the whole of it.

“Just stay calm,” Sora says, sounding more like she’s talking to herself than anyone else, “we’ll get through this!”

There's another bump underneath them, the island lurching forwards and not stopping in it’s race towards the power towers until it finally crashes into them with another strong shake, sending anyone who may have been on their feet before to the ground like sacks of flour.

“Great, now we’re in the middle of the lake!” Tai proclaims, looking at all the water surrounding them.

Seadramon rears its head again, and the Digimon around them tense up, the eight of them leaping in front of the kids in defensive stances.

“ _Spiral Twister_!”

“ _Boom Bubble_!”

Biyomon sends out a long twister of green flame up at it’s head, followed by Patamon inflating like a balloon to send a compressed bubble of air as a follow-up attack; the due don’t seem to do much more than annoy the bigger Digimon, it’s eyes simply narrowing at them.

“ _Poison Ivy_!”

Palmon’s claws(?) extend forwards but she can’t seem to reach high enough to actually wrap around anything on Seadramon; Tentomon and FanBeemon go next, flying up to reach him and sending out their attacks - a big jolt of energy, and small stingers respectively.

“ _Super Shocker_!”

“ _Gear Stinger_!”

But even those two combined don’t seem to do any more than Biyomon and Patamon’s attacks did, he simply growls at the pair surging forward and snapping at them, sending them tumbling backwards to their partners on the ground. Agumon and Gabumon are the last to go, trying their hand with a blue stream of fire and a red ball of fire though getting similar, nonexistent results as the rest of them.

“ _Pepper Breath_!”

“ _Blue Blaster_!”

“Agumon!” Tai calls, “why don’t you digivolve?”

“I’ve been trying, Tai, but I just don’t think I have the energy to do that again.”

“Great,” Jade groans, “so we’re stuck and we can’t even stop ourselves from getting eaten, what a _wonderful_ way to spend my first day at summer camp.”

There’s a shout then, to one side of the island, both TK and Gabumon perk up at it, dashing off with Sakura and Gomamon hot on their heels to make sure they stay okay.

“Matt!” The young boy cries, sprinting down the slick slope of the island with little regard for his safety, Sakura has to stop before the slope, watching Matt swim through the water while Gomamon slides into the water faster than TK and Gabumon can even get down there.

It’s inevitable though, TK slips into the water with another shake of the island just as Matt makes it over; Sakura stifles a panicked gasp though manages to hold it in as Gomamon gets under TK and brings him back to the surface.

“Good job, Gomamon!” Joe calls from where he stands.

“Hurry it up, Matt!” Tai adds, “or the big sea snake’s gonna get you!”

Gabumon says something to Gomamon and the two brothers before plunging into the water himself, swimming up beside Matt as Gomamon turns and swims back to the island. The older of the two blonds, followed by his partner, swim further into the lake, calling out and taunting Seadramon to keep him away from the island. Sakura can’t watch, she feels a little bad only focusing on pulling TK and Gomamon back up the slope, but she’s been too close to an edge for far too long and, frankly, just wants to get off this island onto solid ground _far far away_ from a body of water for a while.

TK grips her arm, watching the water as Gabumon attacks again, he doesn’t stay in the water too long though, Seadramon’s tail gets under him and throws him back towards the island, Matt then disappearing under the surface.

“Matt!”

“He’s fine,” she soothes, rubbing TK’s arm, “he has to be fine.”

Another second passes and he’s suddenly pulled back out of the water, wrapped in Seadramon’s tail and screaming out as the limb constricts around him. The sound is horrible, she’d cover her own ears if she wasn’t covering TK’s, the boy’s eyes wet with tears that dribble down his cheeks in slow paths.

“Patamon, can’t you do anything?” TK asks his little partner, wiping at his nose with his sleeve and covering one of Sakura’s hands with his own.

“I would but Seadramon’s way too big, I’m not strong enough got that.”

“Gabumon?” Sakura asks then, “what about you? You’re bigger and you haven’t used too much energy yet, right?”

The Digimon frowns, “you’re right, Matt’s my partner and he’s in trouble, but I don’t-”

“Gabumon!” Matt cries out, the confines around him seeming to get tighter every second.

“Do something!” Sora all but screams.

“I will! I’ll save him whatever it takes, what’s a little stinky fur compared to a friend like him?”

A light shines then, lighting up from where Matt’s digivice has been on his trousers, it shoots outwards and Gabumon starts to glow, body contorting and shifting, getting bigger and bigger.

“ _Gabumon Digivolve to - Garurumon_!”

In his place stands a much bigger wolf, the same white and blue colour scheme as before but with bigger ears and a longer tail - plus, well, bigger everything!

Garurumon takes off, charging to the edge of the island and leaping off in a long jump, fangs bared and claws out ready to attack. He shoots past Seadramon’s tail first, cutting Matt free and letting him fall safely back into the water; he then turns as he falls, latching his jaw around the lower half of Seadramon’s exposed body, grabbing on and only letting go when the bigger Digimon flings him back into the water.

Matt manages to swim back to shore, bringing himself up onto the slope and panting, Sakura lets go of TK, the two of them scrambling up to go over and check on him, Izzy and Jade join them too, helping pull him back onto solid ground where TK tackles him into a bear hug.

“Are you alright, Matt?”

Matt returns the hug in an instant, arms around his brother while his eyes go to the water, “yeah, but where’s Gabumon?”

The water remains undisturbed for a umber of unsettling minutes before Garurumon rears his head back out, smacking Seadramon in the eye with the end of his tail and swimming around him, much faster now than he had been as Gabumon.

“Garurumon’s fur is legendary!” Tentomon buzzes, hovering around the small group by the edge to share his words of encouraging wisdom, “one of the strongest coats you can find, he’s like a growling torpedo!”

“That’s pretty cool,” Izzy remarks, “so he must be invincible!”

“Well… that’s what I’ve heard anyway.”

“You better not be exaggerating,” Tai says, squinting at him.

Agumon manages to laugh, “he probably is.”

“But I heard about it!”

They watch Garurumon dart through the water, avoiding Seadramon’s tail attacks with almost practiced ease; there’s a lull in action when the two Digimon come to glare at each other. Seadramon acts first, a spew of ice (a lethal ice blast according to Tentomon) shoots from his mouth, the first time they've seen him use that attack, snow and ice starts to envelope Garurumon, caging him into the water where he sits until he shifts, just slightly, but it’s enough to break it all. He uses the platform created by the ice to get a footing and bounce off, going for a counter attack.

“ _Howling Blaster_!”

A wide beam of green and blue fire shoots up the ice beam, connecting its Seadramon’s face and sending it tumbling and sinking into the water of the lake.

The group cheer, throwing their arms up, or jumping, or just hollering out a triumphant woo hoo as they watch the Digimon sink below the surface and Garurumon shrinking back to Gabumon in his place in the water. Gabumon comes back to the island, shaking out his fur onto the two brothers rushing to meet him; the group give the trio their moment, Sakura managing to catch compliments all among the three of them before they burst into a fit of laughter, laughter that, despite not knowing what was so funny, manages to break out amongst the rest of them.

“Okay, very funny, but how are we supposed to get back?” Joe asks, looking at the gap between them and the mainland.

“Watch and learn!” Gomamon proclaims, diving into the water and calling out to the fishes, dozens upon dozens of the multicoloured animals pool forth and start pushing the island (as if that’s something fish are supposed to be able to do) until it hits the shore of the edge of the lake.

“I wanna ask questions, and figure things out, but then I’m also way too tired to care,” Izzy yawns as they stumble off the mass of land, leading one tired trail to where they want to stay for the rest of the night.

They settle down in the grass of the mainland, and Sakura’s never been happier to sleep in dirt before; she gets between Tai and Joe, Sora on Tai’s other side with Jade on Joe’s other side, the four partners among them either laying over them like blankets or above their heads depending on how big they are. Izzy and Mimi are in a small cluster with Tentomon and Palmon closer to the lake while by a rock Matt, TK, Patamon, and Gabumon settle down to rest. The sky is still, so they definitely have a good couple hours left to sleep, and at this point none of them really have the energy to stay on watch, least of all the one’s who were up when everyone else went to sleep.

“You still owe me a pencil, Tai.” Sakura mumbles into the boy’s shirt

“Yeah, I know,” he mumbles in return, “go to sleep, Sakura, you can kill me for it in the morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this update taking months, school stuff happened and this just had so much stuff packed into it it was hard to write, I have literally stayed up all night writing that second section and it took me forever. So I hope even though it’s super late, it’s worth it for the length ^^ thanks for reading !

**Author's Note:**

> I mostly wrote this for myself because I’ve had these OCs for years (my original stories are still on Quotev) and I needed to write them in my current, way better, style so I could finally have this whole series of fics done and actually be proud of them. Hate OCs all you want, hate OCs related to Canon Chaacters, I’m doing this for me but if someone really enjoys this then that’ll make me super happy too


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